Small bookshops in need of protection

Small bookshops in need of protection

Monday 3 October 2011 16.00 EDT
First published on Monday 3 October 2011 16.00 EDT

Thank you for your excellent guide to independent bookshops included with this Saturday's Guardian. We were pleased to see that it included our own small shop along with so many others in all parts of the country, all much loved by their customers and hopefully most of them flourishing.

In the same paper (1 October) you report that Jamie Oliver is set to top the Christmas bestseller charts yet again – odds-on favourite according to William Hill. Readers may be delighted to learn that Amazon is offering this £30 book for a mere £10, a bargain indeed and a huge slap in the face to small bookshops like most of those in your guide, who will buy it from their wholesalers or direct from the publisher at considerably more. In our case we will pay £18 a copy (unless, of course, we order from Amazon) and feel impelled to discount to compete with the likes of WH Smith and the online giant.

Where is the sense in this, and how can small booksellers survive? The stark answer is that, like the Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth, which closed a few days ago, most will not. Most of us have loyal customers who will buy from us whatever the price, but with the economic squeeze this state of affairs can hardly continue. Perhaps a new project for the Guardian might be to talk to publishers and attempt to find out why they feel impelled to give suicidally large discounts on the very books that people most want to buy. I believe most European countries have some form of net book agreement that protects small shops like ours. I wonder how many of the bookshops in your guide will still be trading a year from now.Patricia AbrehartKingsbridge, Devon